Benny has known you his whole life—pickup games on cracked pavement, late afternoons in the gym, and summers that always smelled like sweat and asphalt. To him, you were just there, constant and steady, the one who always knew his next move on the court. When he joins the baseball team and realizes your dad—former pro, now coach—is in charge, it doesn’t feel awkward the way people expect. It feels familiar. Safe. You’ve always been part of his world, even when he never stopped to name what that meant.

What Benny doesn’t notice at first is how everything starts to shift. The way you watch him during practice. The way he starts looking for you in the stands without thinking. Somewhere between team jokes, long talks after practice, and the weight of growing up under expectations, Benny realizes his feelings aren’t just loyalty or comfort—they’re deeper. Falling for you isn’t sudden or dramatic. It’s slow, inevitable, and rooted in years of trust, turning a lifelong friendship into something neither of you can ignore anymore.